Blast from the Past
by lborgia88
Summary: Jun has asked Dr. Nambu to help her find information about her parents. He knows far more than he's ever admitted and with Galactor's latest mecha attack stirring up the past even more, it falls to Ken to decide what truths will be revealed...
1. Chapter 1

This was written for the 2011 Gift Exchange organized by Amethyst at Gatchamania dot net, where participants submitted "gift" requests (for fics or art) that were then distributed anonymously among the participants. The "gift" I wrote this year turned out to be, like last year, for Springie. Thank you again, Springie, for giving me inspiration for a story I'd never have come up with otherwise!

Blast from the Past

* * *

><p>Prologue:<p>

The Crescent Coral Base was on the verge of complete destruction, with Galactor lurking out there somewhere in the dark water, ready to strike again. Surely a final, lethal barrage of torpedoes would hit at any moment, sending water surging throughout its interior and drowning him, Jun and Dr. Nambu.

The God Phoenix, even if it survived the impact, intact, might well remain helpless on its back in a docking hangar, where Joe, Jinpei and Ryu now sat on its bridge's ceiling, trapped. The blast-mangled Crescent Coral Base was sunk to 800 meters' depth and teetering on the edge of a deep trench.

If they didn't drown too when another barrage hit, they would fall and sink into the trench and meet their end when the water pressure crushed the last resistance and life out of both the Base and the God Phoenix.

We're all doomed, Ken thought, feeling the creeping cold of resignation as he sat huddled on the door that was now the floor in the corridor outside the room where Dr. Nambu was trapped and, no doubt, injured. There'd been no sound from him for some time.

He must be unconscious, Ken thought. Maybe that was a blessing.

Ken had one final gift from fate though. He wasn't alone; Jun was here with him, sitting with her back touching his. He'd long known that if he had to pick just one person to be with him at the end, it was her. Not that he'd ever told her that, of course. But then, there was all too much that he had never told her…

Like that he was in love with her and had been for years.

Guilt clung to his mind like a weight pulling his thoughts down to despair. It was too late; it was too late for them now. He'd ever vowed that he'd wait until the end of the war. But that was now. This was the end, but it wasn't the long-awaited victory he'd believed would come.

But surely it would be more agony now if he gave voice to his hopes and dreams, and turned to see love in her beautiful face and radiant eyes, mirroring his own -only to have it all ripped away from him and obliterated the instant more torpedoes struck?

And the other secret that he hadn't told her… What about that? Could he tell her about _that?_ Should he, here at the end of the war? Her knowing what he'd done… Well, he wouldn't have to bear that for very long.

He closed his eyes. Jun was a warm presence at his back, but inside, he felt cold and sick.

So much guilt. Jun, Jun, Jun…

And then she spoke.

"Ken?"

"Yeah?"

"What are you thinking about right now?"

"About my Dad and Mom." He had to say _something,_ after all, and in a sense, he was thinking about the past.

He felt her back shift against his. He knew that wasn't the answer she wanted to hear, but to tell her the truth and see the look in her eyes…

Guilt.

He could just take it all with him, into death, spare her from knowing what had been denied her –because of him.

But she didn't press him for a different answer, not even now. But then, she _never_ had pressed him for answers he wasn't ready to give her. Like him, she'd played the waiting game.

Instead, she asked about his mother and he welcomed the chance, really, to think about his mother one more time. And there was a lot he could think about; she'd lived until he was eleven.

But Jun's mother… He winced. He'd had so much and Jun so little. Even as he described his final memory of the beauty of his mother's ashes floating in the wind, he felt that cold weight again in his stomach. He clenched his hands together.

He should tell her about _her_ mother.

"You're lucky, Ken, to have memories from then," she said.

"What about your parents?" he found himself asking, peering over his shoulder at her. Did she remember _anything_, however fleeting? Some faint image of her mother at least?

"I don't recall," she said sadly, "Since I grew up in an orphanage."

No memories then. So strange, now, that in all these years, he'd never once asked her. Ken couldn't take his eyes off her, even though he was looking just at her back. He still had faint images in his memory, from his early childhood, of his father. But then, he'd been four when his father "died." Jun had lost her mother when she was only two.

He knew a lot about her parents, so much more than she did. He was _such_ a hypocrite; he should tell her…

But he found himself pretending instead, forcing a laugh from his throat.

"Why are you laughing that way?" asked Jun, now turning her head to look back at him, her large green eyes looking sad and perplexed.

"We've worked together for so long," he explained, "But we know so little about each other's private lives."

And that was the truth, in a way. He was hiding so much from her –hiding that he loved her, and hiding what he knew about her parents.

He'd turned away from her again, resting his mouth against his clenched hands.

He should tell her, here at the end. He –of _all_ people- should tell her everything. She deserved to know…

0000000000

(Eight weeks earlier)

Ken was standing in a corridor of the Crescent Coral Base, staring out a window at the fish swimming by. There wasn't much else to do. Dr. Nambu had peremptorily summoned them all here from Utoland but no sooner had the God Phoenix docked, he'd told them, via a screen on the bridge, that he would call them when it was time for their briefing. In other words, "Hurry up and wait."

He'd given them no explanation at all as to what new mecha or terrible plot had been unleashed by Galactor _this_ week for them to battle and defeat, as they always did, while Galactor survived to churn out a new one for _next_ week, as it always did. He'd caught the beginning of a news story on the radio about some relief planes en route to the famine-stricken county of Wale apparently having crashed -maybe it had something to do with that. But at that moment he'd been summoned to the Base by Dr. Nambu, via his bracelet, and he'd dutifully dashed from his shack to his plane without delay.

But then, keeping them in the dark was certainly nothing new for Dr. Nambu, holding all the cards and doling them out when he felt like it. "Need to know," and all that…

He frowned, putting his hands up to the window glass to lean against it, staring out into the water…

Somewhere, out there in the world –and he sure as hell wished he knew _where_- Berg Katse was surely laughing. How many mechas had they destroyed? How many Galactor soldiers had they killed? Too many… And nothing had changed, really, since that first day they'd gone up against Turtle King. He barely had a life; _everything_ he had went into being Gatchaman, the White Shadow who battled for justice and world peace. It was a duty he would never shirk, but as the months went on and on, he'd felt it become heavier. Nothing had changed –nothing except that his father had been taken from him before he'd been able to know him, nothing except the amount of blood on his hands and weight of the burden on his shoulders, nothing except the number of months he'd kept his heart hidden from Jun.

They had to win –win this damned war!

He sighed, closing his eyes. Jun… He'd been looking at Jun, just as the word from Nambu to cool their heels had come through. She'd shrugged, managing a smile, and her eyes had met his as she'd changed from her birdstyle to her civvies in a flash of light, releasing her dark green hair to flow over her shoulders.

She was so beautiful… Looking at her was sustenance for his soul, but at no other time did the sacrifice of being Gatchaman hurt so much.

That was why he'd walked away, really, down this corridor that led to nowhere in particular. That was why he was simmering with growing frustration about the stalemate war of attrition with Galactor; they won the battles but seemingly would never win the war.

Somewhere, Berg Katse had to be laughing, the bastard who had brought about his father's death and kept him apart from Jun and was slowly crushing the life out of him…

His fingers slid along the cold glass, his hands becoming fists. He'd win this war yet. He'd get revenge!

And what the hell was Dr. Nambu doing anyway? Blowing up this week's mecha or secret base wasn't going to be any easier to do later than it would be right now.

But suddenly he knew what Dr. Nambu was doing –he was walking briskly along the corridor towards him, from the opposite direction whence Ken had come.

"Ken, you're alone. Good," he said, as soon as he was close enough to not have to shout.

"What's going on?" Ken's irritated impatience was shifting to puzzlement. Nothing so far today was fitting with the standard pattern for a mission –why did the Doctor want him alone?

Even as he looked at him, there was a distant, distracted air about Dr. Nambu, as he'd been lost in thought and hadn't quite reemerged. He was frowning.

"I need to talk to you privately."

Ken just looked at him, an instant from demanding "Why?" but a second later came "I… need your advice on a matter."

Had _this_ ever happened before? Ken couldn't recall a time…

But the Doctor's face was earnest. And worried. Something strange must be afoot for sure…

He accompanied Dr. Nambu to his office.

0000000000

"I've just received a phone call," said Dr. Nambu, seating himself behind his desk and gesturing for Ken to sit in one of the chairs.

So this was going to take a little while, Ken realized, sitting down.

"From a man I knew well a long time ago. We went all through graduate school together, and for a time, we were practically like brothers. But I haven't seen him in eighteen years. We… didn't exactly part on good terms."

Dr. Nambu had turned slightly to the side, gazing across the room. His distant air, Ken realized now, was a gulf of time. He was dwelling in past memories…

"Why was that?" Joe felt like a brother to Ken, and they certainly didn't _always_ get along. Was the advice sought by the Doctor something to do with that?

"A convoy of ISO planes was on its way to deliver food and supplies to the country of Wale today," continued Dr. Nambu, not answering his question, "They've all crashed under extremely suspicious circumstances."

Aha, thought Ken. He'd been right, at least, about what this mission involved. But this phone call from an estranged grad school buddy?

Dr. Nambu, turning to glance at Ken, seemed to sense his question.

"The man who called me, barely an hour ago, Dr. Demon, he claims to have information about what caused all those planes' destruction. The call was transmitted to me here from ISO headquarters, as Dr. Demon has no idea this place exists."

"But you don't believe him?" asked Ken, eyes narrowing. Old friends from the past certainly had a way of leading to nothing but trouble for all of them –trouble with Galactor. Look at Sabu, Koji, Alan… "Why did you part on bad terms?"

"Short version: I got the job that he wanted –the job that I have right now, in fact," said Dr. Nambu, gazing up at the ceiling , "I recorded our conversation; I'll let you all listen to it shortly."

"Fine," said Ken, feeling the prickle of impatience again. If he'd just hurry up and do that, maybe then they could get out there and find whatever Galactor mecha was responsible for this week's attack. Hell, maybe this would be the mission that would finally reveal the location of Galactor's headquarters, turn the tables and let _them_ make the attacks instead of sitting around passively, waiting for them to happen and only then reacting!

"But," Ken added, "Why did you need to tell me all this privately? What kind of advice do you need here?" He still couldn't figure out what the Doctor wanted from him.

"It has to do with Jun."

What? Suddenly this conversation mattered a whole lot more to Ken. He found himself yanking his chair closer to Dr. Nambu's desk.

"Tell me."

"A couple weeks ago, Jun came to me. I think that Joe's misguided visit to BC Island to see his parents' graves had gotten her thinking..."

"Go on," said Ken, leaning to rest his hands on the edge of the desk. If Jun had something on her mind, she hadn't told him anything about it…

"Jun has a copy of her birth certificate; she knows her parents names. And she also knows when her mother died –when she was two. The orphanage that she was raised in, from which I adopted her and Jinpei, had provided her with that much."

"That's all she knows?" asked Ken, surprised. But then, he'd never asked her about it before. Maybe because all of them, except Ryu, had come together as children with tragic losses –some quite recent- in their pasts, they'd unconsciously agreed not to stir up sadness by asking questions about parents who were gone. Jun and Jinpei both used "Nambu" for their surname; he'd never thought about what her original surname might have been. She must have wanted hers to be the same as Jinpei's –she considered him her brother- and his parentage was completely unknown.

"Yes, that is all she knows," said Dr. Nambu, looking Ken straight in the eyes, but tensing himself. "However, it is not all that _I_ know."

Their eyes held. In that moment, Ken thought he finally understood what this was really about. He had grown up here in Dr. Nambu's house and the whole time, the Doctor had told him that his father was dead.

But he hadn't been dead! Secrets had been kept from him, and by the time he'd learned the truth, it had been too late. He'd found his father –learned the _truth_- just in time to see him take off into the sky in the V-2 rocket and truly be lost to him forever.

Dr. Nambu closed his eyes, even as Ken felt his get warmer, saw that his hands on the desk were clenching up. Maybe he wasn't performing interrogations with the help of fire extinguishers or running off half-cocked after Galactor, guided only by rage…

But the rage was still within him, its flames lower and under more control but its heat still intense. Berg Katse, the true murderer of his father –that was who inspired his most visceral anger. But deep within, Ken knew full well that some of it came from being deceived for all those years by someone he'd trusted completely and being made a dupe, and from all the times he had been with Red Impulse and could have known that he was with Kentaro, his father. But the truth had been kept from him, "for his own good."

But he hadn't been a helpless four year old when he'd first met "Red Impulse" –he'd been the leader of an elite ninja team battling a global terrorist menace!

He realized that he was glaring at Dr. Nambu, who had opened his mouth as if to speak but hesitated for a moment.

"Ken, I have come to regret that you and Joe –but especially you- did not know everything that you could have known about your parents. Protecting a child from truths that will only cause them unhappiness, well… you and Joe haven't been children since the day of your first mission. Jun's seventeen and she's not a child anymore either."

"Right," said Ken, realizing with surprise that he was actually getting something pretty damned close to an apology, but waiting for more. Tell me about Jun…

"Jun's done some research, as much as she's been able with the sources she has access to. She's learned that a man with her father's name, Peter Hogan, was a scientist here at the University in Utoland. She's learned that man died in a lab accident about 7 months before she was born –but she has no details. And, she is also aware that I was myself a research scientist at the University, at approximately the same time. A couple weeks ago, Jun came to me and asked me if I would help her, using my authority, to find out more information about her parents. I told her that I would make inquiries and get back to her."

"You don't have to, do you?" asked Ken, seeing his answer in the sagging of Dr. Nambu's shoulders, "You already know things you've never told her –am I right?"

"Yes," said Dr. Nambu quietly, "But after the phone call I got today… Fate takes such strange turns."

"What do you mean?"

"Ken," said Dr. Nambu, sitting up fully straight again, "I want your advice. I never had proof, but I believe that Dr. Demon, the man who called me today, was responsible for the lab accident that killed Jun's father –and that it very likely was no accident at all."

_What?_ The murderer of Jun's father had just telephoned Dr. Nambu today? Ken's mind raced…

"And now you are all about to go on a mission, and somehow Demon's got himself involved… He was a passionate man, proud and quick to anger and impulsive emotions-"

"He's joined Galactor –isn't that obvious? We have to get him!"

Yes, even if he hadn't been able to avenge his own father yet, he could surely help Jun! Then there would at least be some justice done in the universe.

Dr. Nambu put up a hand, saying "I'm not convinced he's with Galactor. I think Demon's capable of a lot of… personal failings, but he could never be the sort of man who would serve Galactor. His pride, if nothing else, would stop him. I want to try to bring him in, talk to him. But do you think I should tell Jun what I know and suspect about this man?"

There was a long silence. Ken's first impulse was to say "Yes!" But in the silence, he hesitated…

Rage, the hunger for vengeance. He felt it burn within himself, and it was Joe's primary fuel. But it took a toll; it came with risks. He'd nearly gotten them all killed –drowned in ice water- up in the Arctic. Joe had ended up shot up with bullets at BC Island.

Did he want that for Jun? He was hesitating now too.

"Tell _me_ what you know," said Ken finally. He leaned back in his chair to listen…

0000000000


	2. Chapter 2

_(Eighteen years earlier)_

_Dr. Nambu, standing in an out-of-the-way corner, took a long sip from his drink before swallowing awkwardly as he gazed around. The large room was filled with people standing about in socializing clusters and the murmur of their chatter. However many scientific degrees he racked up, they never did much to help him feel more at ease at parties. But it was September, the beginning of a new academic year here at the University. His degrees _had _helped him land his research position here though, a few years earlier, and as it was the one of the most prestigious institutions of science, he needed to show his face at the inevitable cocktail receptions that were held this time of year. To avoid them, just like avoiding service on departmental committees, would get you labeled a "crank" or "not a team player" and do you no favors in the eyes of your colleagues. _

_A rumor had been circulating all week that Director Anderson himself might even be here tonight, all the way from the ISO headquarters in Amegapolis. Ever since it had been announced that the newly formed International Science Organization intended to take all the independent scientific research projects that were scattered about the world in numerous different private and government-run companies, institutes and universities and put their management, coordination and funding in the hands of one key person, who would report directly to Director Anderson of the ISO himself, there'd been a hum of tense excitement in the air here at the University in Utoland whenever scientists were gathered together._

_This was the most prestigious place for science in the world –the best people were _here_- and they all wanted that position with the ISO. _

_Well, not _him_, or at least not anywhere except in his dreams –the person who got that plum job would have to be brilliant but also a leader -someone who spoke well and carried an aura of authority and who could also pull off all the talking, schmoozing and politicking that would undoubtedly be required to get the nod from Director Anderson and the UN Committee on Scientific Research that oversaw the entire ISO and to whom Anderson reported. Someone like himself, he would never be noticed by the right people…_

_He could see Dr. Hogan holding court in the center of the room, the sun around which everything seemed to orbit. Now there was a scientist who had a truly impressive legacy of research behind his name, experience directing research projects on a grand scale and who could play the "politics" game –he'd been everywhere and had connections all over the world, it was said. From what Dr. Nambu had heard around -and he spent a lot of time listening even if he didn't talk much- Dr. Hogan was deemed the likely candidate by nearly everyone for the new ISO position._

_So it was no surprise to Dr. Nambu that Dr. Alex Demon was standing near enough to Dr. Hogan to overhear what he was saying to the other scientists and grad students that had gathered around him, while staying just far enough away to make it clear that he was _not_ one of his groupies._

_Dr. Nambu smiled; his friend had never lacked for ambition in all the years he'd known him. If Dr. Hogan was widely regarded as the favorite in the race, Dr. Demon was close behind him. Much younger than Hogan, he was less established and less connected in the scientific world, but he could almost make up for it with his charisma and confidence. If Director Anderson and the relevant UN officials valued raw energy in an up-and-comer over experience, then he had a real chance._

_He took another big sip of his drink. He and Dr. Demon had been grad students –classmates- together and had both landed research positions at the University here in Utoland, but that was where their similarity ended. Demon was never content in the moment, but always looking ahead restlessly, wanting more. And he'd recently maneuvered himself into working with the eminent Dr. Hogan on a joint research project involving nuclear reactions –Dr. Hogan's primary field- even though Demon's own background was largely in electric transmission and EMFs. He knew how to get a ride on the right coattails…_

_Whereas he himself, despite all the work he had done in researching newer or more efficient methods of clean energy production, could never manage the kind of self-promotion necessary to become a player in the ISO. He spent too much time alone in his lab and not enough time on the phone, at conferences around the world, or at parties like this. His friend, he knew, came from poverty and had made it to where he was now purely on brains and hard work- nothing had been given to him. Maybe that's where Demon's greater hunger and drive came from. He himself, he'd been left a modest fortune by his late parents and he lived in a villa that overlooked the sea. He wanted to use science to help the world –to save the world from itself- but otherwise there wasn't anything he yearned for or felt he was missing._

_Except maybe for…_

_Taeko Hogan was crossing the room now, wending her way towards her husband. Her shining black hair was piled high on her head, with curling tendrils falling about her elegant neck, and as she walked smoothly with her head held regally high, the light glimmered over the satin of her dress, high-necked and knee-length but cut perfectly to the curves of her beautiful figure. _

_He was, realized, staring like an awestruck schoolboy –she had that effect on him every time he saw her from afar at one of these social functions- but surely he wasn't the only one. No wonder that Dr. Hogan was king around here –he had a wife who was a queen._

"_Who," said a voice from behind him, "Is _she?_"_

_He pulled his eyes away from her to turn around and see the face of Kentaro Washio, a hint of a smirk on his lips. What was he doing here anyway?_

"_What are you doing here?" _

_Kentaro shrugged, "I spend so much time at this university these days, test-flying prototypes for the engineers in the Aviation Technology department, I'm getting invites to the parties now."_

"_Oh," he replied, a bit blankly, but he was glad to see him. He'd known Demon since grad school but he and Kentaro were friends from boyhood. Already the room full of people felt less intimidating with his oldest friend now at his side._

"_You didn't answer my question," said Kentaro, gazing past his shoulder –no doubt at Taeko Hogan._

"_She's Dr. Hogan's wife, that's who she is," he said, putting some extra emphasis on the "wife."_

"_Ah, I've heard of the Hogans," said Kentaro, curious now. "Point him out for me, will you? I hear he's in line to land that big ISO job."_

_So he did. He was still standing in his circle of allies and admirers. His wife had not yet made it over to him, having been drawn into passing conversations along the way with other groups of people._

_Kentaro sniffed slightly. "A bit old for it, isn't he? He looks like he'd be thinking of retirement more than angling for a promotion."_

_It was true that Dr. Hogan's hair was liberally streaked with grey, and rather receded from his forehead but he felt compelled to insist "He's not _that_ old, and anyway, it's a job for _brains_, not brawn."_

"_He's a lot older than his wife, that's for sure," remarked Kentaro, turning his gaze back to the beautiful Taeko. _

_She was smiling at something that someone had just said to her and even from this distance, the beauty of her large green eyes was transfixing._

"_You should be saving your ogling for your own wife," he pointed out to Kentaro, trying to look reproving even though he really couldn't blame him._

"_I'm married, not blind –there is a difference, you know."_

_Before he could think of a suitable retort, Kentaro turned on him, smiling. "We need to find _you_ a wife, Kozaburo –high time you settled down too and stopped staring at Mrs. Hogan. I'll have to ask Sayuri if she's any female friends we can fix you up with."_

_He felt himself flushing, and muttering, "Don't waste her time. Women are never interested in me."_

"_Nonsense," declared Kentaro, giving him a thump on the back "You just need confidence, that's all. Or a lot of money –and you do have that."_

_His friend was grinning and he found himself laughing now too_

_But Kentaro was looking speculatively at Dr. Hogan._

"_A bit ironic, is it not, that a man who got his start figuring out how to make nuclear weapons with _bigger _explosions, is going to work for the ISO –an organization dedicated to peace?"_

"_He helped to win a war," said Dr. Nambu, feeling obliged to defend his fellow scientist. "And now he'll help make sure we never see another war like that again."_

_Kentaro looked skeptical. "You could do that job, Kozaburo –and better than anyone else here. Why haven't you thrown your hat in the ring?"_

"_Me?" he said, almost in a gasp, "Don't be ridiculous. I can't compete with the eminent Dr. Hogan." And probably not with Demon either, he added in his mind._

"_You have brains, dedication and integrity, my friend," said Kentaro, looking at him now earnestly, "What Hogan's got, if you ask me, is just more ego."_

_Taeko had finally finished her mixing and mingling and had made it over to her husband, where she stood at his side._

"_Okay, and he's somehow got a beautiful wife charming people on his behalf," he conceded, "Though I wonder how on earth he managed that –you should ask him for pointers."_

"_I've heard," he said, ignoring his friend's needling, "That she came from a small village no one's ever heard of but that she was a gifted athlete –a champion gymnast -and got a scholarship to the University here because of that." He shrugged, "I presume Hogan met her at some University banquet or function."_

"_Ah," said Kentaro, making a show of looking around the room, "Then perhaps your future wife is here in this very room tonight."_

"_Leave me alone, would you?" he insisted, sighing with exasperation, "I'm too busy for a wife or family –unlike a pilot who just gads about in the sky, we scientists actually have serious _work _to do. I know Hogan's research partner quite well, and he says even Hogan practically lives in his lab."_

_But his words were lost on Kentaro, who was ignoring him completely now in favor of the woman who was approaching them, carrying a small boy on one hip._

"_Sayuri, darling, glad you could join us here," Kentaro called out, gazing happily at his wife and small son. "Look, Kozaburo, hasn't Ken grown since the last time you saw him? He's nearly eighteen months old now."_

_In the company of his oldest friend and Sayuri, the rest of the evening at the party he'd been dreading attending turned out to be… fun._

_It was late now. He'd accompanied Kentaro outside as he headed off to get his car from the aviation hangar's parking lot but then wandered back inside to the where the party had wound down to small number of lingering people and the lights had been dimmed to encourage them to leave. He paused before reentering the room, remaining concealed in the dark corridor but looking into the room._

_What people remained –looked like Hogan and his groupies- they were all at the far end of the room but Sayuri was sitting nearby on a sofa, her small son sleeping peacefully in her lap. Leaning over her, cooing at Ken, was Taeko Hogan. A large diamond glittered on her left hand, the hand she was using to stroke little Ken's hair. The sheen of her hair and pale face and her luminous large eyes lent her radiance even in the shade. It was nearly impossible not to look at her; she drew his gaze like a moth to a flame. Watching her, he could understand a legend like that of Helen of Troy, of a beauty for which a war could be fought._

_He'd never spoken to her before, but now was his chance as she was with his friend Sayuri. But he hesitated –what would be the point? And he'd probably just stammer like a fool anyway._

"_If I ever have a daughter," she was saying, "I hope she finds a handsome one like this when she grows up."_

"_Oh, is there happy news?" said Sayuri. Taeko smiled, but merely raised a shoulder in doubt._

_It was then that he stepped closer to the entrance into the room and saw that someone else was watching the women. Dr. Demon was standing off to their side, several feet away and apparently unnoticed by all._

_But his gaze was locked onto Taeko Hogan, and for a brief moment his face was laid bare. Everyone looked at Taeko Hogan, but not like that… No, definitely not like _that._ Demon's face was awash with a burning and manic desire, the face of a madman in love._

_He felt himself turn cold with dread. Oh dear God, Demon –no!_

0000000000

"Okay," said Ken, "Let me see if I've got this straight."

Dr. Nambu had paused in his explanation of how he'd known Jun's parents –he'd kept it terse and straight forward, but emotions and memories had been flickering across his face while he spoke.

There's a lot he's _not_ telling me here, Ken realized.

"So Jun's father," Ken continued, "Was a big-name scientist, in line to get an important job with the ISO, and Jun's mother was really beautiful."

Like mother, like daughter, he thought…

"And," Ken, "Dr. Demon was his research partner but he also wanted the ISO job for himself –and he was obsessed with Jun's mother?"

"Yes," said Dr. Nambu, staring off across the room, "Jealous and obsessed –he wanted _everything_, I think, that Dr. Hogan had."

Ken wanted to ask for more details, and above all, to hear about the fatal lab accident that Dr. Nambu believed was no accident. But Dr. Nambu suddenly started and stood up hastily.

"I've lost track of the time! The rest of the tale will have to wait –if I'm going to meet Demon tonight, I'll have to leave soon."

This was news to Ken. He stood up too.

"Wait a minute, Doctor, you didn't say anything about _meeting_ with him!"

Dr. Nambu made an impatient gesture with his hand, saying "Look, get the others together in my briefing room and I'll play the recording of my conversation with Demon for all of you."

"But what about Jun and-"

"Please don't say anything to her about this, Ken. Or at least, not yet."

Dr. Nambu was already walking out the door. Following him, Ken grudgingly conceded he'd keep silent, at least until he'd heard the whole story. But already, he was feeling serious ill will towards this Dr. Demon…

0000000000

Ken slumped wearily onto his bed in his quarters at the Crescent Coral Base. After his private meeting with Dr. Nambu, the rest of the day had been a complete fiasco.

And it was all his own fault…

Dr. Nambu had played the recording of his phone conversation with Dr. Demon for all of them to hear, and he had supplied an edited explanation of his past with Dr. Demon that made no mention of Dr. Hogan or his wife. As Dr. Nambu had said during their private meeting, Dr. Demon had claimed to have information about the destruction of the relief planes to Wale and had instructed Dr. Nambu to meet him alone –at the civilian airport landing field by R Beach.

But this had set off warning bells in Ken's head –it had all the earmarks of a Galactor trap. Dr. Nambu already had reason to think Dr. Demon was a killer; it had made no sense that he'd go and meet with him alone at night in the middle of an empty airfield.

But Dr. Nambu, maybe because he and Demon had once been friends and fellow scientists together, he had been allowing sentiment or wishful thinking keep him from accepting that Demon must now be a minion of Galactor.

_Demon's capable of a lot of… personal failings, but he could never be the sort of man who would serve Galactor. His pride, if nothing else, would stop him._

That's what Dr. Nambu had told him. And he'd been wrong.

"You'll wait here until I give the orders," Dr. Nambu had ordered them all sternly, "I'll go alone. It's a matter of honor."

He'd ignored Ken's warnings about Galactor. No, he'd been back to his usual self again –dishing out the orders but not wanting any of his advice

But he himself, he'd made a far worse mistake…

As soon as Dr. Nambu had left the briefing room to go and head for R Beach, he'd exchanged a look with Joe and had immediately decided that they _would_ all follow Dr. Nambu, no matter what he'd ordered, to protect him if Dr. Demon tried anything treacherous.

At the airfield, they'd all been lurking in the periphery of the darkness –out of sight but close enough to Dr. Nambu to help if trouble arose. He'd gotten a look at Dr. Demon –a tall, lean man with sharp cheekbones, black hair and beard, and a patch over one eye.

He'd felt a small rush of vindication when Dr. Demon admitted that he was, in fact, in the service of Galactor and that he had been the one responsible for destroying the relief planes en route to Wale –he'd claimed he'd used "clear threads called smog fibers, and passed a strong electric current through them."

They'd all moved in closer at the point! He'd been convinced that this scum –the killer of Jun's father and now a member of Galactor- must have been about to attack the Doctor.

They'd all been tricked.

Dr. Nambu had never been the target at all. Dr. Demon had thrown a "cigarette" up into the air that had exploded with a flare of bright light, for an instant exposing all of them –in their civvies and with their faces all visible- to Dr. Demon's view.

Dr. Nambu had been horrified to see them all standing around him, and he'd been the first to realize what Dr. Demon's scheme had been all along.

"Get out of here!" he'd shouted to them all, "He's got a camera!"

Ken slid his legs over the edge of the bed and sat up, resting his head in his hands and sighing. He'd come straight to his quarters after they had all gotten back to the Base from the airfield, but he couldn't keep skulking in here. He was going to have to face up to the terrible mistake he'd made and, with all their help, try to figure out what they were going to do next.

Dr. Demon had gotten away and it was all too likely that even now he was supplying Berg Katse with photos of what they all looked like in their civvies. What semblance of normality their lives had was going to be obliterated; they would have to stay in hiding, living here at the Base around the clock, or else they would be tracked down one by one by Galactor.

There had to be _something_ they could do to yet prevent this! Some way to-

There was a knock on his door.

"Ken?"

It was Dr. Nambu.

No sooner had Ken opened the door, the Doctor moved quickly into the room to face Ken, shutting the door behind him.

"Doctor," he began, "Again, I'm sorry for what happened, I take full responsibility-"

"Yes," said Dr. Nambu, cutting him off and speaking quickly, "And listen to me now. I'm going to call another briefing shortly where we can discuss what's happened. I'll be sending you all out against Dr. Demon's 'smog fiber' mecha just as soon as I find out when the next convoy of relief planes is scheduled to fly to Wale. Director Anderson is going to let me know. And if we start work immediately, I think there are ways we can thwart Demon's fibers –I've got an idea for an electro-resistant coating that might do the trick."

Dr. Nambu was looking at him intensely. Now that he knew for certain that Dr. Demon truly had gone over to Galactor, he was ruthless in his determination to defeat him.

"And I have special instructions for you, Ken."

"I swear I'll obey them to the letter!" He meant it, all right -the shame of his disastrous blunder stung sharply.

"I don't need to impress on you the importance of finding out if Dr. Demon has photos that show your faces and if so, destroying them all, but there's more at stake than you realize."

"You still haven't told me the rest of what you know about Demon and Jun's parents," Ken said, realizing that if Dr. Nambu had come here to talk to him privately, this must have something to do with Jun again.

"I will –I promise- as soon as there's time, but right now, all I can tell you is that you _must_ protect Jun especially."

Ken felt his stomach tighten. What now? 

"If Dr. Demon saw her face earlier this evening, even briefly, or worse yet, if he's looking at a photo of her right now…"

Dr. Nambu closed his eyes, as if recalling memories.

"He'll know who she is. Jun looks so _very_ much like her mother –trust me on that. And Dr. Demon was fixated with her mother. I… I've never wanted to come to the worst conclusions about Demon and what I think he's done, but then, I didn't think he would ever have served Galactor. Now, I have to assume the worst case scenario. Demon was disastrously obsessed with Jun's mother –willing to kill, I believe, to try to get her for himself. If he learns now that she has a daughter…"

He didn't need to say any more. Ken could imagine for himself.

"I'll protect her!" Ken said fiercely, hands clenching into fists.

"Good," said Dr. Nambu, putting a hand briefly on his shoulder before turning to the door and opening it to leave, "Find the others –all of you meet me in the briefing room as soon as possible."

0000000000

In the briefing room, as his fellow Science Ninjas gathered around him, Ken's shame returned in full force. He was their leader; if he'd done his duty and followed the Doctor's orders, they wouldn't be at risk of having their civilian lives ruined and Jun wouldn't be at risk from a criminal madman like Demon.

He punched his fist into one hand, berating himself. "We let ourselves fall right into their trap," he said. It was his fault that they had been there in the first place to fall into it.

How could he have been so stupid?

"I trusted Dr. Demon too, you know," said Dr. Nambu, putting a hand on his shoulder again as he had in his quarters. To Ken, it was a reminder of his recently given mission to protect Jun especially, and yet another reminder that it was his fault that she was now uniquely at risk.

"Besides," said Jun now, looking at Dr. Nambu, "You would have been in danger if we hadn't shown up."

Ken glanced her way as she spoke. She was so beautiful…

And, he realized, now staring at his feet, _she was right._

Dr. Demon was clearly dangerous and working for Galactor. If he had decided that they should all stay at the Base while Dr. Nambu went to meet with Demon, who was to say that Demon hadn't had a Plan B –attacking or abducting Dr. Nambu? They had surely saved Dr. Nambu from harm by being there.

The burden of his shame felt a little lighter. Jun, she was ever his support when he needed it the most. If only he could tell her that.

_Sustenance for my soul…_

But his moment of respite was shattered in that instant when an image of Berg Katse appeared on one of the wall viewscreens.

Katse's voice oozed gloating mockery, announcing a "special broadcast." He was laughing at them. Ken felt a spasm of rage –if only he could have dove through that screen to twist Katse's neck with his bare hands until it snapped! See if he'd think _that_ was funny!

"Lots of dirt to dish in this edition," continued Katse, "Paparazzi on the prowl. Oh, and I've had a _really_ good look at your faces –before you know it, Galactor's messenger from Hell's coming for you. Hang up your capes, the Team's finished, guys!"

Oh no…

Katse was gone, and everyone's face had fallen. Their worst fears confirmed –so much for their civilian lives, the only retreat they had from the stress of being Science Ninjas and their only taste of normalcy.

If Katse's seen our faces, realized Ken with a jolt of panic, then so has Dr. Demon. He's seen Jun…

Dr. Nambu cut through the gloom, his voice sharp.

He knows too, thought Ken, he knows what this means. We _have_ to nail Demon.

"We'll have to make up the difference by improving our mecha," declared Dr. Nambu, clearly thinking along the same lines.

"Do you have any plans on how we can defeat smog fiber?" asked Ken, recalling the Doctor had said something, in his quarters earlier, about an "electro-resistant" coating.

"I've got an idea or two," he replied grimly, his hand on his chin.

A moment later he added, "I'm going to have to work fast but it'll still take some hours –I'll be in the lab. No one disturb me unless it's absolutely vital."

0000000000


	3. Chapter 3

So, they all had to wait. Ryu and Jinpei were all for getting some food. It was the middle of the night, but no one was ready to sleep –they were all too tense. Fortunately, there were scientists and technicians working round the clock at the Base, so the cafeteria was open.

They ended up sitting around a table, eating, and speculating about what Dr. Nambu's "idea or two" might be.

"I just hope it involves bird missiles," said Joe.

Ken had a feeling that "electro-resistant coating" wasn't intended for _that,_ but said nothing. He was uncomfortable to realize how much more he knew about what was going on than any of his teammates.

Especially Jun.

She had to be tired –they all were- but she hid it well. Perhaps her face was slightly wan but her eyes were still lovely and expressive, her features –delicate, small nose and rosebud mouth- so perfectly in harmony with the smooth curves of her face. With one hand, she was twisting a lock of her green hair through her fingers…

Part of the magic that was Jun –she could look like a porcelain doll but then fight as a lethal ninja, convey that gentle serenity that made want to never leave her side even as she was using her expert skill to demolish a mecha with explosive charges. There was no one else like her in the world…

Dr. Nambu says you're beautiful, Jun, just like your mother was, he thought. But you don't know that, do you?

He also says Dr. Demon killed your father, but you don't know that either.

Dr. Nambu wanted him to protect her from Demon, but shouldn't she, rather, be the one to take Dr. Demon down? Didn't she have that right?

He set down his fork, feeling queasiness pass over him. This was wrong, what he and the Doctor were doing, keeping secrets from her about her parents. She deserved to be told everything. Though, Ken realized, he didn't know what everything might entail; the Doctor hadn't finished his story yet.

Ryu was saying something about Joe being the one likely to be identified first by Galactor, as he'd won some big races and had been in photographs in newspapers.

"Sooner or later, they'll figure us all out," said Jinpei mournfully, "None of us will be able to go _anywhere_ or do _anything_ without Galactor coming after us. Our lives are gonna _suck_."

"Jinpei," said Jun reproachfully, "If we have to live here at the Base, all the time, then that's what we'll do –whatever it takes to defeat Galactor."

"You'll miss the Snack J –don't say you won't!" retorted Jinpei.

"Yes, but here, we'll all be together and we'll see each other everyday."

Her eyes, briefly, found Ken's.

"That won't be so bad," she concluded, with a hint of a smile.

He smiled back, before he could stop himself. Always, she made him feel better, lightened the burden of being Gatchaman.

But his guilt lingered. He needed to have another private meeting with Dr. Nambu –and before they headed out to face Dr. Demon.

0000000000

Ken had ordered everyone to go to their quarters and at least try to get some sleep. He fully intended to do so himself, but first…

Dr. Nambu had said for no one to disturb him in his lab, but Ken decided he could still head for that section of the Base –there might be a tech around who could tell him what progress Dr. Nambu was making.

As it happened, the first person he encountered was Dr. Nambu himself, emerging from the lab and pulling off protective goggles.

"Ah, Ken," he said, catching sight of him, "Just the person I wanted to see –Director Anderson has just informed me that the second convoy of relief planes is ready to depart for Wale so there's no time to waste –we have to act!"

He explained quickly that the "electro-resistant coating" that he had devised was working successfully, but that he'd only applied it to Jinpei's helico buggy.

"His is the smallest vehicle that can fly. There isn't enough time to put a similar coating on the God Phoenix or your jet. Those relief supplies _must_ get through to Wale this time –people are dying there- so you'll need to depart by dawn and make sure the way is clear and safe for the convoy this time."

"As long as the coating protects the buggy successfully," replied Ken, thinking of all the interesting gadgets that Jinpei's vehicle was equipped with, "Then that should be all we need to get past the smog fibers when we encounter them."

"Yes, but then you'll have to deal with Dr. Demon, inside the mecha," replied the Doctor, looking meaningfully at Ken.

Ken felt his jaw tightening. This had all started when Dr. Nambu had said he wanted his advice about what to tell Jun. So far, he hadn't given him _any_ advice –he was waiting till he had all the facts. But time was running out!

"You have to tell me the rest of what you know -about Dr. Demon."

Dr. Nambu must have seen in his face just how determined he was.

"We can talk in the lab," said Dr. Nambu, turning to go back inside it and gesturing for Ken to follow him.

Inside, Dr. Nambu was gazing all around the lab, pacing even, but Ken stayed where he was, sitting on a lab stool but not taking his eyes off him. Many of the lights were off now, and the undersea windows showed only the dark water of night.

"I was in a lab very like this, at the University, the morning it happened," began Dr. Nambu finally, "It was in a sprawling building –the lab that I used wasn't very close to the one Dr. Hogan and Demon had been using for their research."

"What was their research?"

"Developing new fissile materials to use in nuclear reactions, and some other types of explosive material, but also how to limit and channel the resulting energy from the contained explosions in as controlled a manner as possible, to make it usable instead of destructive. Dr. Hogan was the expert in explosives, but Demon's area was energy conduction."

"Like smog fibers…" muttered Ken.

"Yes, I believe he could have been developing them even eighteen years ago though I didn't see a lot of him in those days –we'd grown somewhat apart after grad school -but here and there he'd tell me things about his research. The goal of their research was to develop powerful yet compact and cost-effective energy generators that could be easily transported to areas where there was a high but short term demand for energy –construction projects in remote areas, for example, or places recently afflicted by natural disasters."

"So… that morning -_what_ happened?" asked Ken. If time was short, he wanted to cut to the chase.

"An explosion inside their lab. Even in my own lab, I heard the noise. The windows and glassware on the shelves all rattled. I went running to see what had happened…"

"This was the explosion that killed Jun's father?" asked Ken quietly. Dr. Nambu's face showed that he was reliving the trauma in his mind.

"Yes," said Dr. Nambu, ceasing to pace and closing his eyes, "As it happened, I was the first one inside their lab –I didn't bother to take precautions about possible radiation, I just ran in there…"

Dr. Nambu fell silent.

"Dr. Hogan was dead?" asked Ken softly, after a moment.

"_Very,"_ said Dr. Nambu, his jaw tight, _"God spare me from ever seeing something like that again."_

Ken quailed. Jun's father had been splattered all over a lab? It was his turn to close his eyes.

No wonder he's not sure she'd want to know about _that,_ thought Ken. Would anyone?

"What caused the explosion? Where was Dr. Demon when it happened?"

Dr. Nambu collected himself and continued. "It so happened that Dr. Demon had been running late that particular morning. He wasn't anywhere around when the explosion occurred. Sifting through the damage, in the days that followed, it became clear that a sample of one of the experimental fissile materials that Dr. Hogan was working with that morning had been mislabeled –it had actually been in a concentration a hundred times higher than what the label indicated."

"Who'd done the labeling?" asked Ken, realizing where this was leading.

"Demon said it had been Dr. Hogan who'd prepared and labeled all the samples," said Dr. Nambu, "That he must have somehow –however improbable it was- made a mistake."

"Did you believe him?"

Dr. Nambu sighed, removing his glasses and rubbing his eyes.

"I wanted to… I tried at first, but no."

0000000000

_(Eighteen years earlier)_

"_I swear, Kozaburo, on all that I hold sacred," cried Demon, his face a study in pure anguish, so very convincing. "Somehow Peter must have made a mistake with that sample, listed the wrong concentration!"_

_He wanted to believe him, but…_

"_The man had been working in labs for almost thirty years –there are no incidents on file of him _ever_ making mistakes like that –he was _beyond_ meticulous."_

_Demon had closed his eyes, looking away._

"_But there's no other explanation…" he whispered._

"_Why were you late to the lab that morning? First time you've ever been late, I'm told."_

"_You've been asking questions, checking up on me?" For a moment, Demon glanced at him, eyes flashing._

"_I'm on the Laboratory Safety Committee –it's my duty to investigate _all_ accidents."_

"_I'd overslept," said Dr. Demon, "I'd forgotten to set the alarm clock."_

_Demon's eyes met his own as he said this, and held his gaze steadily. But he knew Demon, had known him for years… Something, ever so faint, in his voice or posture, it felt… off. It felt like guilt._

_He was lying._

_But there was no possible way to prove that he was lying. The Laboratory Safety Committee's official report on the incident, with himself listed as the chief investigator, attributed the accident to a mislabeling by Dr. Hogan of a sample of fissile material. Nothing else, after all, could be proven. Dr. Demon's record would remain clean of any penalty or reprimand._

_It troubled him. He felt a lingering feeling of unease in the days that followed, that justice had not been served. But then, he reminded himself, there was no proof that Dr. Hogan _hadn't_ made the error. He hadn't known the man well at all, after all. It was possible…_

_There was a memorial service for Dr. Hogan at the University. Taeko Hogan was there, accepting condolences from hundreds of people, tears glinting in her eyes but showing only a hint of the strain, in the tightness of her mouth, that it must have been to maintain her elegant composure, her head held high on her swan-like neck. _

_Her husband had died, and so horribly. She had to be devastated…_

_For the first time, he approached her and spoke to her –a stammered "I'm so sorry for your loss." She touched his hand briefly, said "Thank you." Her large green eyes had briefly rested on his. He knew he would always remember her face as he saw her that day, a work of art in its exquisite perfection, for as long as he lived._

_After the service was over and people were dispersing, he caught some bits of murmured conversation around him –mentions of "the ISO position," and "Dr. Demon."_

_He hadn't spotted Demon at the service, but then, it had been crowded. He could easily have missed seeing him, especially if he were trying to keep a low profile._

_He wanted to put the whole matter of the accident behind him –nothing could be proved; he had to move forward- but now unease assailed him again._

_He began walking aimlessly throughout the building's long corridors, lost in thought._

_He knew how ambitious his friend was… But he wasn't ambitious enough to kill, was he? Surely never that!_

_But he remembered the way Demon had been looking at Taeko Hogan, barely a month earlier at that party. There'd been no doubt in his mind that Demon must be madly in love with Taeko Hogan…_

_He shook his head, trying to clear his mind of intuition and use only logic. Dozens of men, surely, must suffering in the throes of unrequited longing for Taeko Hogan. Hell, he was rather almost one himself._

_His wanderings had brought him back to where the service had been held; everyone seemed to be gone now, but he peered into the room nevertheless._

_He would, ultimately, have let the matter lie and have learned to deal with any lingering misgivings about justice for Dr. Hogan if only he hadn't seen Dr. Demon with Taeko Hogan._

_They were the only ones left in the room. He was embracing her –nothing so untoward about that as he had been her husband's close colleague and research partner and one might comfort a bereaved widow so. But while Taeko was facing away from him, he could see Demon's face over her shoulder. His eyes were closed, but there was no mistaking the expression on his face…_

_The face of a man believing he now had the very thing he had long burned with desire to possess._

_All of Dr. Nambu's misgivings slammed into him. His breath caught and he quickly backed away from the room, and practically fled the building._

_Dr. Demon had killed Dr. Hogan. He'd wanted the ISO position, but far above all, he had wanted Taeko Hogan's husband to be gone so that he could get her for himself._

_He felt sick._

_Demon, my friend, he thought, you're a madman and a murderer…_

_He couldn't prove any of it. The rest of the Laboratory Safety Committee hadn't wanted to hear his unfounded speculations…_

_But there was no longer any doubt in his mind._

_In that moment he saw one thing that he could do, after all, to try to bring some measure of justice to bear on Dr. Demon. _

_He recalled what Kentaro had told him at that party…_

"_You have brains, dedication and integrity, my friend. What Hogan's got, if you ask me, is just more ego."_

_He squared his shoulders and took a deep breath. He went to his office, and he promptly bought a plane ticket to Amegapolis._

_He would find a way to introduce himself to Director Anderson. If he had to mix and mingle at cocktail parties, make speeches or give presentations, then he would do just that. No more hiding in corners. Somehow, he would dig down deep within himself and find the courage to talk confidently about his accomplishments, his love for knowledge and science and his unwavering sense of duty to the good of the world and the improvement of the quality of life for all its citizens in a future of peace._

He, _Dr. Kozaburo Nambu, would get that position in the ISO, overseeing the management, coordination and funding of all global scientific research._

_He would do his damnedest to ensure that Dr. Demon did not! _

_He would do it for Taeko Hogan._

_As it turned out, fortune sometimes did favor the cause of justice. He succeeded in his mission –every last bit of it._

_Within a couple weeks, it was announced that Dr. Kozaburo Nambu, based in Utoland, had been chosen to head the new International Science Organization's entire research division._

_People later told him rumors that the day the announcement had been made, Dr. Demon had been heard, in his lab, smashing up glassware –apparently in a rage._

_It was true that when Demon burst into his office the very next day, he had a bandage over one of his eyes. _

_He was irate, ranting._

"_You never wanted that job! You did this just to spite me, didn't you? You think I killed Peter –you really believe that I killed him!"_

_He answered him firmly, and coldly, stating that he was not responsible –Director Anderson and the UN Committee on Scientific Research made their own decisions._

_Demon's face was drawn and haggard, but he laughed maniacally._

"_I've lost everything!" he cried, _"Everything!" _His voice was raw with anger and despair._

_He called Security to have him removed. _

_With his research partner dead, and no position with the ISO, Dr. Demon left the university before the semester had even ended. _

_Taeko Hogan had left Utoland too. She must have gone home, he thought, and hoped that she would there find all the care and comfort that she might require, safe from the predations of Demon._

_Dr. Demon was still free, but there was never any mention of his name again –and with the position he held in the ISO, he would certainly have heard if Dr. Demon had ever reared his head again in any scientific circles._

_He could feel some pity for him, especially as time went on. Demon was a man of passion, not of calculated malice; if longing for Taeko Hogan had finally pushed him over the edge, caused him in one hasty and deranged moment to change a label on a sample, thinking that only an injury or a charge of negligence from the Lab Safety Committee would come of it, he could almost begin to understand it._

_All he had to do was call up in his mind his memories of Taeko's grace and beauty to feel a pang of pity for Demon and his tragic, twisted obsession with her._

0000000000

So now he knew the whole story about Dr. Demon, Ken realized, studying Dr. Nambu's face. He couldn't imagine the ISO without Dr. Nambu –the two were practically one in the same to Ken. Surely the Science Ninja Team wouldn't even exist to battle Galactor if Dr. Nambu had not been chosen by Director Anderson and the UN, all those years ago.

As before, he could tell that Dr. Nambu, while reliving it all in his mind as he explained it, was giving him the facts but not all of his feelings. But it was enough.

He now fully understood why Dr. Nambu wanted to keep Jun as far away from this man as possible. He was clearly dangerous and unstable.

Jun's father had died in October, eighteen years ago. Jun's birthday was May 2…

"Jun's mother," Ken said, "She must have been nearly a few months pregnant when Jun's father died."

"Yes," said Dr. Nambu, "But they hadn't told anyone, so far as I know, and her condition… well, you wouldn't have known it to look at her –not then."

"So Jun never knew her father at all, then," Ken said, almost whispering, "Never even was held in his arms."

He thought of his ever-present rage at the death of his own father, by Galactor's hands.

He wanted revenge on Galactor, in the name of justice and for all the misery it had inflicted upon the world, but most intensely, in his heart, he wanted personal vengeance on Berg Katse.

He wanted all the time he could have spent with his father –_knowing_ he was his father- that had been denied him and was now, because of Berg Katse, something that he would never have.

But time with her father was something that Jun had never had_ any_ of, he realized.

Because of Dr. Demon.

"You'll need to launch the God Phoenix, and to head for Wale, very soon," interjected Dr. Nambu into his thoughts.

Ken was remembering Jun, the very first time he had seen her. She'd been eleven, with a five-year old Jinpei in tow. Even then, he'd sensed something special about her though he'd had no way of knowing, then, that his life had just changed for the better…

But she had spent years, he realized, living at an orphanage.

"Doctor, there's still something I don't know," Ken said, "You said Jun knows her mother died when she was two."

"That's right."

"But you'd known her parents, hadn't you? But you didn't adopt her until she was eleven. Why did she have to spend _nine_ years in an orphanage?"

Dr. Nambu closed his eyes.

"I will always feel regret about that."

0000000000


	4. Chapter 4

So, they all had to wait. Ryu and Jinpei were all for getting some food. It was the middle of the night, but no one was ready to sleep –they were all too tense. Fortunately, there were scientists and technicians working round the clock at the Base, so the cafeteria was open.

They ended up sitting around a table, eating, and speculating about what Dr. Nambu's "idea or two" might be.

"I just hope it involves bird missiles," said Joe.

Ken had a feeling that "electro-resistant coating" wasn't intended for _that,_ but said nothing. He was uncomfortable to realize how much more he knew about what was going on than any of his teammates.

Especially Jun.

She had to be tired –they all were- but she hid it well. Perhaps her face was slightly wan but her eyes were still lovely and expressive, her features –delicate, small nose and rosebud mouth- so perfectly in harmony with the smooth curves of her face. With one hand, she was twisting a lock of her green hair through her fingers…

Part of the magic that was Jun –she could look like a porcelain doll but then fight as a lethal ninja, convey that gentle serenity that made want to never leave her side even as she was using her expert skill to demolish a mecha with explosive charges. There was no one else like her in the world…

Dr. Nambu says you're beautiful, Jun, just like your mother was, he thought. But you don't know that, do you?

He also says Dr. Demon killed your father, but you don't know that either.

Dr. Nambu wanted him to protect her from Demon, but shouldn't she, rather, be the one to take Dr. Demon down? Didn't she have that right?

He set down his fork, feeling queasiness pass over him. This was wrong, what he and the Doctor were doing, keeping secrets from her about her parents. She deserved to be told everything. Though, Ken realized, he didn't know what everything might entail; the Doctor hadn't finished his story yet.

Ryu was saying something about Joe being the one likely to be identified first by Galactor, as he'd won some big races and had been in photographs in newspapers.

"Sooner or later, they'll figure us all out," said Jinpei mournfully, "None of us will be able to go _anywhere_ or do _anything_ without Galactor coming after us. Our lives are gonna _suck_."

"Jinpei," said Jun reproachfully, "If we have to live here at the Base, all the time, then that's what we'll do –whatever it takes to defeat Galactor."

"You'll miss the Snack J –don't say you won't!" retorted Jinpei.

"Yes, but here, we'll all be together and we'll see each other everyday."

Her eyes, briefly, found Ken's.

"That won't be so bad," she concluded, with a hint of a smile.

He smiled back, before he could stop himself. Always, she made him feel better, lightened the burden of being Gatchaman.

But his guilt lingered. He needed to have another private meeting with Dr. Nambu –and before they headed out to face Dr. Demon.

0000000000

Ken had ordered everyone to go to their quarters and at least try to get some sleep. He fully intended to do so himself, but first…

Dr. Nambu had said for no one to disturb him in his lab, but Ken decided he could still head for that section of the Base –there might be a tech around who could tell him what progress Dr. Nambu was making.

As it happened, the first person he encountered was Dr. Nambu himself, emerging from the lab and pulling off protective goggles.

"Ah, Ken," he said, catching sight of him, "Just the person I wanted to see –Director Anderson has just informed me that the second convoy of relief planes is ready to depart for Wale so there's no time to waste –we have to act!"

He explained quickly that the "electro-resistant coating" that he had devised was working successfully, but that he'd only applied it to Jinpei's helico buggy.

"His is the smallest vehicle that can fly. There isn't enough time to put a similar coating on the God Phoenix or your jet. Those relief supplies _must_ get through to Wale this time –people are dying there- so you'll need to depart by dawn and make sure the way is clear and safe for the convoy this time."

"As long as the coating protects the buggy successfully," replied Ken, thinking of all the interesting gadgets that Jinpei's vehicle was equipped with, "Then that should be all we need to get past the smog fibers when we encounter them."

"Yes, but then you'll have to deal with Dr. Demon, inside the mecha," replied the Doctor, looking meaningfully at Ken.

Ken felt his jaw tightening. This had all started when Dr. Nambu had said he wanted his advice about what to tell Jun. So far, he hadn't given him _any_ advice –he was waiting till he had all the facts. But time was running out!

"You have to tell me the rest of what you know -about Dr. Demon."

Dr. Nambu must have seen in his face just how determined he was.

"We can talk in the lab," said Dr. Nambu, turning to go back inside it and gesturing for Ken to follow him.

Inside, Dr. Nambu was gazing all around the lab, pacing even, but Ken stayed where he was, sitting on a lab stool but not taking his eyes off him. Many of the lights were off now, and the undersea windows showed only the dark water of night.

"I was in a lab very like this, at the University, the morning it happened," began Dr. Nambu finally, "It was in a sprawling building –the lab that I used wasn't very close to the one Dr. Hogan and Demon had been using for their research."

"What was their research?"

"Developing new fissile materials to use in nuclear reactions, and some other types of explosive material, but also how to limit and channel the resulting energy from the contained explosions in as controlled a manner as possible, to make it usable instead of destructive. Dr. Hogan was the expert in explosives, but Demon's area was energy conduction."

"Like smog fibers…" muttered Ken.

"Yes, I believe he could have been developing them even eighteen years ago though I didn't see a lot of him in those days –we'd grown somewhat apart after grad school -but here and there he'd tell me things about his research. The goal of their research was to develop powerful yet compact and cost-effective energy generators that could be easily transported to areas where there was a high but short term demand for energy –construction projects in remote areas, for example, or places recently afflicted by natural disasters."

"So… that morning -_what_ happened?" asked Ken. If time was short, he wanted to cut to the chase.

"An explosion inside their lab. Even in my own lab, I heard the noise. The windows and glassware on the shelves all rattled. I went running to see what had happened…"

"This was the explosion that killed Jun's father?" asked Ken quietly. Dr. Nambu's face showed that he was reliving the trauma in his mind.

"Yes," said Dr. Nambu, ceasing to pace and closing his eyes, "As it happened, I was the first one inside their lab –I didn't bother to take precautions about possible radiation, I just ran in there…"

Dr. Nambu fell silent.

"Dr. Hogan was dead?" asked Ken softly, after a moment.

"_Very,"_ said Dr. Nambu, his jaw tight, _"God spare me from ever seeing something like that again."_

Ken quailed. Jun's father had been splattered all over a lab? It was his turn to close his eyes.

No wonder he's not sure she'd want to know about _that,_ thought Ken. Would anyone?

"What caused the explosion? Where was Dr. Demon when it happened?"

Dr. Nambu collected himself and continued. "It so happened that Dr. Demon had been running late that particular morning. He wasn't anywhere around when the explosion occurred. Sifting through the damage, in the days that followed, it became clear that a sample of one of the experimental fissile materials that Dr. Hogan was working with that morning had been mislabeled –it had actually been in a concentration a hundred times higher than what the label indicated."

"Who'd done the labeling?" asked Ken, realizing where this was leading.

"Demon said it had been Dr. Hogan who'd prepared and labeled all the samples," said Dr. Nambu, "That he must have somehow –however improbable it was- made a mistake."

"Did you believe him?"

Dr. Nambu sighed, removing his glasses and rubbing his eyes.

"I wanted to… I tried at first, but no."

0000000000

_(Eighteen years earlier)_

"_I swear, Kozaburo, on all that I hold sacred," cried Demon, his face a study in pure anguish, so very convincing. "Somehow Peter must have made a mistake with that sample, listed the wrong concentration!"_

_He wanted to believe him, but…_

"_The man had been working in labs for almost thirty years –there are no incidents on file of him _ever_ making mistakes like that –he was _beyond_ meticulous."_

_Demon had closed his eyes, looking away._

"_But there's no other explanation…" he whispered._

"_Why were you late to the lab that morning? First time you've ever been late, I'm told."_

"_You've been asking questions, checking up on me?" For a moment, Demon glanced at him, eyes flashing._

"_I'm on the Laboratory Safety Committee –it's my duty to investigate _all_ accidents."_

"_I'd overslept," said Dr. Demon, "I'd forgotten to set the alarm clock."_

_Demon's eyes met his own as he said this, and held his gaze steadily. But he knew Demon, had known him for years… Something, ever so faint, in his voice or posture, it felt… off. It felt like guilt._

_He was lying._

_But there was no possible way to prove that he was lying. The Laboratory Safety Committee's official report on the incident, with himself listed as the chief investigator, attributed the accident to a mislabeling by Dr. Hogan of a sample of fissile material. Nothing else, after all, could be proven. Dr. Demon's record would remain clean of any penalty or reprimand._

_It troubled him. He felt a lingering feeling of unease in the days that followed, that justice had not been served. But then, he reminded himself, there was no proof that Dr. Hogan _hadn't_ made the error. He hadn't known the man well at all, after all. It was possible…_

_There was a memorial service for Dr. Hogan at the University. Taeko Hogan was there, accepting condolences from hundreds of people, tears glinting in her eyes but showing only a hint of the strain, in the tightness of her mouth, that it must have been to maintain her elegant composure, her head held high on her swan-like neck. _

_Her husband had died, and so horribly. She had to be devastated…_

_For the first time, he approached her and spoke to her –a stammered "I'm so sorry for your loss." She touched his hand briefly, said "Thank you." Her large green eyes had briefly rested on his. He knew he would always remember her face as he saw her that day, a work of art in its exquisite perfection, for as long as he lived._

_After the service was over and people were dispersing, he caught some bits of murmured conversation around him –mentions of "the ISO position," and "Dr. Demon."_

_He hadn't spotted Demon at the service, but then, it had been crowded. He could easily have missed seeing him, especially if he were trying to keep a low profile._

_He wanted to put the whole matter of the accident behind him –nothing could be proved; he had to move forward- but now unease assailed him again._

_He began walking aimlessly throughout the building's long corridors, lost in thought._

_He knew how ambitious his friend was… But he wasn't ambitious enough to kill, was he? Surely never that!_

_But he remembered the way Demon had been looking at Taeko Hogan, barely a month earlier at that party. There'd been no doubt in his mind that Demon must be madly in love with Taeko Hogan…_

_He shook his head, trying to clear his mind of intuition and use only logic. Dozens of men, surely, must suffering in the throes of unrequited longing for Taeko Hogan. Hell, he was rather almost one himself._

_His wanderings had brought him back to where the service had been held; everyone seemed to be gone now, but he peered into the room nevertheless._

_He would, ultimately, have let the matter lie and have learned to deal with any lingering misgivings about justice for Dr. Hogan if only he hadn't seen Dr. Demon with Taeko Hogan._

_They were the only ones left in the room. He was embracing her –nothing so untoward about that as he had been her husband's close colleague and research partner and one might comfort a bereaved widow so. But while Taeko was facing away from him, he could see Demon's face over her shoulder. His eyes were closed, but there was no mistaking the expression on his face…_

_The face of a man believing he now had the very thing he had long burned with desire to possess._

_All of Dr. Nambu's misgivings slammed into him. His breath caught and he quickly backed away from the room, and practically fled the building._

_Dr. Demon had killed Dr. Hogan. He'd wanted the ISO position, but far above all, he had wanted Taeko Hogan's husband to be gone so that he could get her for himself._

_He felt sick._

_Demon, my friend, he thought, you're a madman and a murderer…_

_He couldn't prove any of it. The rest of the Laboratory Safety Committee hadn't wanted to hear his unfounded speculations…_

_But there was no longer any doubt in his mind._

_In that moment he saw one thing that he could do, after all, to try to bring some measure of justice to bear on Dr. Demon. _

_He recalled what Kentaro had told him at that party…_

"_You have brains, dedication and integrity, my friend. What Hogan's got, if you ask me, is just more ego."_

_He squared his shoulders and took a deep breath. He went to his office, and he promptly bought a plane ticket to Amegapolis._

_He would find a way to introduce himself to Director Anderson. If he had to mix and mingle at cocktail parties, make speeches or give presentations, then he would do just that. No more hiding in corners. Somehow, he would dig down deep within himself and find the courage to talk confidently about his accomplishments, his love for knowledge and science and his unwavering sense of duty to the good of the world and the improvement of the quality of life for all its citizens in a future of peace._

He, _Dr. Kozaburo Nambu, would get that position in the ISO, overseeing the management, coordination and funding of all global scientific research._

_He would do his damnedest to ensure that Dr. Demon did not! _

_He would do it for Taeko Hogan._

_As it turned out, fortune sometimes did favor the cause of justice. He succeeded in his mission –every last bit of it._

_Within a couple weeks, it was announced that Dr. Kozaburo Nambu, based in Utoland, had been chosen to head the new International Science Organization's entire research division._

_People later told him rumors that the day the announcement had been made, Dr. Demon had been heard, in his lab, smashing up glassware –apparently in a rage._

_It was true that when Demon burst into his office the very next day, he had a bandage over one of his eyes. _

_He was irate, ranting._

"_You never wanted that job! You did this just to spite me, didn't you? You think I killed Peter –you really believe that I killed him!"_

_He answered him firmly, and coldly, stating that he was not responsible –Director Anderson and the UN Committee on Scientific Research made their own decisions._

_Demon's face was drawn and haggard, but he laughed maniacally._

"_I've lost everything!" he cried, _"Everything!" _His voice was raw with anger and despair._

_He called Security to have him removed. _

_With his research partner dead, and no position with the ISO, Dr. Demon left the university before the semester had even ended. _

_Taeko Hogan had left Utoland too. She must have gone home, he thought, and hoped that she would there find all the care and comfort that she might require, safe from the predations of Demon._

_Dr. Demon was still free, but there was never any mention of his name again –and with the position he held in the ISO, he would certainly have heard if Dr. Demon had ever reared his head again in any scientific circles._

_He could feel some pity for him, especially as time went on. Demon was a man of passion, not of calculated malice; if longing for Taeko Hogan had finally pushed him over the edge, caused him in one hasty and deranged moment to change a label on a sample, thinking that only an injury or a charge of negligence from the Lab Safety Committee would come of it, he could almost begin to understand it._

_All he had to do was call up in his mind his memories of Taeko's grace and beauty to feel a pang of pity for Demon and his tragic, twisted obsession with her._

0000000000

So now he knew the whole story about Dr. Demon, Ken realized, studying Dr. Nambu's face. He couldn't imagine the ISO without Dr. Nambu –the two were practically one in the same to Ken. Surely the Science Ninja Team wouldn't even exist to battle Galactor if Dr. Nambu had not been chosen by Director Anderson and the UN, all those years ago.

As before, he could tell that Dr. Nambu, while reliving it all in his mind as he explained it, was giving him the facts but not all of his feelings. But it was enough.

He now fully understood why Dr. Nambu wanted to keep Jun as far away from this man as possible. He was clearly dangerous and unstable.

Jun's father had died in October, eighteen years ago. Jun's birthday was May 2…

"Jun's mother," Ken said, "She must have been nearly a few months pregnant when Jun's father died."

"Yes," said Dr. Nambu, "But they hadn't told anyone, so far as I know, and her condition… well, you wouldn't have known it to look at her –not then."

"So Jun never knew her father at all, then," Ken said, almost whispering, "Never even was held in his arms."

He thought of his ever-present rage at the death of his own father, by Galactor's hands.

He wanted revenge on Galactor, in the name of justice and for all the misery it had inflicted upon the world, but most intensely, in his heart, he wanted personal vengeance on Berg Katse.

He wanted all the time he could have spent with his father –_knowing_ he was his father- that had been denied him and was now, because of Berg Katse, something that he would never have.

But time with her father was something that Jun had never had_ any_ of, he realized.

Because of Dr. Demon.

"You'll need to launch the God Phoenix, and to head for Wale, very soon," interjected Dr. Nambu into his thoughts.

Ken was remembering Jun, the very first time he had seen her. She'd been eleven, with a five-year old Jinpei in tow. Even then, he'd sensed something special about her though he'd had no way of knowing, then, that his life had just changed for the better…

But she had spent years, he realized, living at an orphanage.

"Doctor, there's still something I don't know," Ken said, "You said Jun knows her mother died when she was two."

"That's right."

"But you'd known her parents, hadn't you? But you didn't adopt her until she was eleven. Why did she have to spend _nine_ years in an orphanage?"

Dr. Nambu closed his eyes.

"I will always feel regret about that."

0000000000


	5. Chapter 5

_(Six years earlier)_

_He had never been in this particular part of the city before, despite all the years he'd lived in Utoland. But then, there was nothing on this quiet, out-of-the-way and largely residential street that would be of interest to a couple of thirteen year old boys like Ken or Joe, or to himself, so why would he have?_

_He was only here now because an elderly and retired ISO colleague lived here and he'd needed to consult with him._

_Well, pick his brain, really. He'd been the leading expert, in his day, on the theory of molecularly mutable substances and had made some slight progress towards making the theory a reality._

_He himself was even closer now, but that was one of the special projects, in the subterranean lab at his villa, that he didn't tell anyone about._

_He'd come away from his meeting, though, with some new "theoretical" ideas to test out. Extreme high frequency sound… That might prove to be just the activator needed to make the whole process work correctly._

_If I can make ordinary fabric change shape on the wearer's body, become bulletproof, help them to fly…_

_Then he would be one step closer to creating soldiers of Science. No, _ninjas_ they would be, more than soldiers -a small, elite force, acting in secrecy._

_But when the time came, years from now, they would be ready to defend the ISO. The enemy was out there already, nascent but growing. Too many incidents of sabotage and theft against scientific installations around the world were occurring. All his instincts told him they were connected. No one believed him –they all joked that his job of overseeing ISO research around the world had made him paranoid. But his job was why he was in a unique position to feel what was happening._

_The enemy was out there, and it was increasingly _organized.

_Four years earlier, a man from BC Island had contacted him, claiming he knew all about this shadowy organization and that he would tell all in return for protection for himself, his wife and his son._

_But that man and his wife had been shot and killed before he could meet with them. Only the son had survived, and Joe didn't know anything about what his father's work had really been._

_But the Asakuras had confirmed that a secret criminal organization that aimed to, some day, overthrow the ISO and the UN truly did exist –that it wasn't "paranoid" to think so. They had a name for it too._

_Galactor._

_He was walking down the street to his car, lost in thought about the trouble the future held. He didn't have any recruits yet to train for his future "Science Ninja" squad. Until there were people in the ISO and the UN who actually _believed_ him when he said they'd be under serious attack, globally, in about ten years from a terrorist organization, then there was no way for him to obtain recruits._

_He sighed. Until then, he could at least get Ken and Joe to help him see if he could get the mutating fabric to actually work now, by experimenting with sound frequencies…_

_Across the street, a large group of children in similar clothes were walking along the sidewalk in rows, overseen by a couple of adults bringing up the rear. _

_He would never have bothered to even glance at them, but something had caught his eye. One of the taller girls in the group of children had green hair, long and loose around her shoulders. Such a rare, odd color…_

_And then the girl turned and gazed across the street at him. He stared, then nearly gasped aloud when he found his old memories in his mind and realized what he was seeing…_

_She was a younger version of Taeko Hogan. Her large eyes, the contours of her face and features, her long neck and elegant posture…_

_How could this be? _

_He just stood there, staring, but the girl had looked away again as she kept on walking, tugging on the hand of a much smaller boy who walked alongside her._

_He saw where all the children were headed… the large, institutional-looking building on the next block._

_It was an orphanage._

0000000000

"All these years," said Ken, "I never knew. I remember you telling Joe and me, one day, that you'd applied to adopt a girl and a boy from a local orphanage, but I never knew why you'd specifically chosen them."

Ken rubbed his eyes. He should have tried to get some sleep, really, like the others were doing. As it was now, he was going to have to go on the mission to Wale without any.

But he'd had to know more about Jun.

"Now you know," replied Dr. Nambu, looking weary himself. He too had been up all night working on the electro-resistant coating for Jinpei's helico buggy. "As soon as I saw her on that street -saw her face- I knew who her mother must be."

"How had she ended up at that orphanage," Ken asked, frowning, "Surely she'd had _some_ relatives…"

Dr. Nambu's shoulders sagged. "As it turned out, she did not, or at least none that were willing or able to take in a two-year old child when her mother died."

"You would have taken her in, wouldn't you, Doctor? Like you did with Joe and me, if you'd known?"

"Yes," sighed Dr. Nambu, "I've always felt terrible that I let the Hogans down. I should have been more concerned, kept in touch with Taeko Hogan to make sure everything was okay for her, after her husband had died. But I was so very busy, immersed in my new job duties… I just assumed that she would be all right, that she'd probably, in time, remarried –all that…"

Dr. Nambu had put a hand over his eyes, leaning against a counter and falling silent. There had to be more to this than he was saying… Why so much guilt about this?

"Why did Jun's mother die?" Ken asked, "Was she sick? Was it some kind of accident?"

"It wasn't… Demon again, was it?" he added a moment later.

"No," said Dr. Nambu quickly, glancing at him, "Or at least not… directly. But he must have ruined her life, thoroughly devastated her, when he caused the death of her husband."

"You see," he added, walking towards an undersea window and gazing into the dark water, "I failed Jun and her mother. I never checked to make sure that Taeko Hogan was okay, even though her husband had been a university colleague of mine, even though I was in a position of responsibility and could have done so much for her, as the widow of Dr. Hogan."

"What do you mean?" Ken asked quietly. Dr. Nambu turned again to face him.

"Jun's mother committed suicide. That much they knew at the orphanage, though they had never told Jun. I never told her either."

Oh no…

Dr. Nambu was staring at a clock on the far wall.

"You have to all launch the God Phoenix now. Demon will surely know that another convoy of planes is en route to Wale, and you have to defeat his smog fibers and ensure that those planes make it through safely to their destination. The lives of thousands of starving people are dependent on that happening –today."

He was right; they had to go. But Dr. Nambu was still staring at him, looking so very tired but also somehow… relieved.

He's finally gotten it all off his chest, Ken realized. He's never told anyone any of this before.

But then Dr. Nambu asked "So, Ken, before you all go up against Dr. Demon, do you think that Jun should know everything that I've told you? That I believe Dr. Demon killed her father and ruined her mother's life? That it's _his_ fault that she spent nine years in an orphanage and never knew her parents?"

This morning, Ken would have said that Jun ought to be told _everything_ about her parents, that nothing should be withheld from her…

But now he knew what had been kept from her for all these years, and just how awful and tragic it was…

"Is there _time?"_ asked Ken, realizing suddenly that he no longer knew for certain what his advice to the Doctor should be.

"Before you have to leave? Regretfully, I fear not," said Dr. Nambu, "You would have to tell her everything yourself, while in flight to Wale."

Tell his third officer all her tragic and depressing family history right before taking her into a combat situation against the very man responsible for causing all the tragedy?

No, that was a recipe for disaster. She'd feel rage, grief; she'd be prey to all the irrational emotions that afflict good decision-making.

She'd be just like me, right after my Dad died. I could barely think straight at all, I was so angry…

"She should know," Ken said, meeting the Doctor's tense gaze, "That's my advice to you. She deserves to know everything. But not now. Later."

Dr. Nambu nodded. "Capture Dr. Demon, Ken, and bring him back with you as a prisoner. Once Jun knows the full truth, if she can confront him face to face, I think that will bring closure for her. Especially if he will confess now to everything that he did all those years ago. But remember –above all, protect Jun from him during the mission! If he's seen her face…"

"Got it," said Ken, with a brusque nod of his head, "Tell everyone to meet me on the God Phoenix." Time to go and be Gatchaman…

He wished he'd gotten some sleep.

But he ran from the room, raising his bracelet before his face.

"Bird Go!"

0000000000

The God Phoenix bashed, nose first, right into the heart of Dr. Demon's mecha, accompanied by Jinpei's helico buggy.

The fighter jets that had accompanied the relief planes had been destroyed –shot down by beams of electric current coming from the mecha- but the relief planes had made it away safely to continue on to Wale, where their precious cargo of food supplies would begin saving lives. Dr. Demon's mecha hadn't pursued the relief planes; it seemed that Demon had wanted to battle the God Phoenix now just as much as they did him.

Ken had ordered Ryu to fly head on towards the mecha, knowing full well they'd hit the smog fibers. They had indeed hit the smog fibers and powerful electric current had begun cracking up their ship's exterior and shorting out electrical systems all over the place. But Ryu had been able to wrench the God Phoenix clear of the fibers and that was when they played their ace. Ken had ordered Jinpei to go out in his helico buggy, with its electro-resistant coating that Dr. Nambu had devised and applied to it, and he'd been impervious to damage from the smog fibers. He'd used his buggy's cutting tool to slice the fibers to bits and clear a path for the God Phoenix, all the way to the mecha at the center of the surrounding web of fibers.

And now they were inside the mecha, within a large, high ceilinged room. There were goons everywhere. Jinpei began bashing them with his buggy, but Ken, Joe and Jun leaped from the dome of the God Phoenix to an upper level balcony that circled the large room.

Below them, on the main floor, was Dr. Demon himself.

"Dr. Demon, this is the end of the line for you!" shouted Ken, glaring down at him.

Unlike their first encounter at the airfield, there was no pretense of civility. All Ken could think, in that moment, as he stared down at Dr. Nambu's onetime friend and colleague was how much suffering that man had brought upon Jun's family…

Demon was equally hostile. "Arrogant brats," he shouted back, pointing a finger at them angrily, "You've got some nerve to enter my spider –none of you gets out alive."

"Go ahead and hit me with your best shot," taunted Ken. If he could single himself out as Demon's primary target, that could only benefit Jun.

"Fire away," said Joe.

And with that, Demon began yelling at all the goons to shoot them and the whole room became filled with barrages of machine gun fire.

Jinpei, within his buggy, began bashing goons at an even more furious rate. Ken, Joe and Jun all leapt from the balcony into the fray, taking out goons in all directions with quick and lethal kicks and punches.

Ken kicked a goon in the head as Joe, nearby, bashed another across the skull with his gun…

Where was Jun? Ken took a second to sweep his eyes about and his heart lurched in his chest when he saw that Jun had been grabbed from behind by a goon as another one closed in on her…

They're singling out Jun! Demon's figured out who she is!

"Protect Jun," the Doctor had said. Ken moved to dash towards her captors, ready to rip off their arms for daring to touch her…

But Jun lashed out with her feet, lightning fast, and kicked away the goon who'd been about to grab her legs. Even as she did, with superb agility and speed she instantly flipped herself up into the air, twisting free of the grasp of the goon behind her and then came down behind him, before he'd even realized what had happened, and kicked him hard in the center of his spine.

Ken's heart soared. I _love_ you, Jun…

She was both a kind and tender soul, and a ruthless and lethal warrior. There was no one else like her in the world.

He kicked two more goons in the head and grabbed a third one to hurl him across the room. Jun and Joe took down still more of their opponents.

They were winning the fight. But a quick glance around the room revealed that Demon was nowhere in sight.

If he'd escaped…

But Ryu contacted him from the God Phoenix, telling him that Demon had only just dashed from the room.

A throw of his boomerang mowed down the remaining goons. Shouting for the others to follow him, Ken ran towards the main door that led from the room –that had to be the way to the control room for this mecha.

Jinpei smashed through the door with his buggy and Ken, Joe and Jun were inside a second later and leaping over a balcony railing towards Dr. Demon, on the level below, who had turned to gasp at them in surprise.

He was surprised, but not unprepared. Even as they all landed on the floor before him, Dr. Demon whipped out a gun.

He was _fast. _ Ken reached for his boomerang, realizing in that terrible instant that Demon had chosen Jun as his target…

He threw his boomerang at Demon's hand on his gun, but he'd already gotten off one shot…

Jun's bracelet had been hit. It was falling off her wrist towards the floor…

Ken nearly froze. It was as if time had slowed to a crawl.

The aura of light was forming around her. Without her bracelet on her wrist, she was going to revert to her civvies. Demon would see her face, in full light and standing mere feet way from him.

He would recognize her for who she was –Taeko Hogan's daughter. Demon would say something…

_This was not the time or the place for Jun to find out who Demon really was and what he had done to her family!_

Protect Jun… This was one situation where she truly did need his help –far more than she knew!

The bright light was now fading around her…

Demon had one hand on his eye patch camera, yelling "I will now reveal your identity!"

Ken leaped towards her and Joe did the same. With barely a second to spare, they got in front of Jun and spread their arms, using their wings to shield her from Demon's view, and from his camera.

Ken's heart was pounding in his chest. This crazed but crafty madman had been within an instant of seeing Jun! Dear God, it had been too damned close!

_Protect Jun…_

Why had he targeted Jun? Had he already seen enough of her face at the airfield, or in his photo from the airfield, to see just who she resembled so very much –the woman he'd been obsessed with eighteen years ago?

"Out of my way!" yelled Demon, but Jinpei's bolas came flying through the air towards him from the balcony above where his buggy was perched. Demon was struck and he fell back towards the console behind him with a cry of rage and pain.

With no time to waste, Jun snatched up her bracelet from the floor and he and Joe boosted her up into the air towards the balcony and the shelter of Jinpei's awaiting buggy. Joe leaped up there after her.

But he lunged towards Demon.

To hell with any notion of dragging this lunatic back to the Crescent Coral Base in the God Phoenix! In that moment he only wanted this eternal menace to Jun's safety and happiness to be eliminated –and to be gone for good!

_Protect Jun…_

"Come on, Demon!" he snarled, grasping him by the lapels of his jacket and shaking him, "Hurry up and press the self destruct button!"

"That is the last thing that I will do!" retorted Dr. Demon.

"Would you rather have us destroy it?" demanded Ken, shaking him harder, "I'm offering you this one chance so that you can end your life with a scrap of dignity –one more chance to prove the proud scientist you once were!"

Dr. Nambu had said that he was proud…

And it was true –he'd managed to say just the right thing to this madman. Demon's demeanor changed from defiance to stoic resignation.

"You're not on the Science Ninja Team for nothing," he said, his voice gone quiet now, "If times hadn't changed, you would have worked for me. Nambu chooses his colleagues wisely."

He reached inside his jacket; Ken was ready for tricks, ready for him to whip out a knife, but he only brought forth some photos.

"Some copies of the photos I sent to Katse," said Demon, "Give them to Nambu for me."

He pressed the self destruct button.

Ken was staring at the pictures… None of their faces were showing at all in them, only their feet and legs as they'd leaped away from Demon at the airfield. If these images were indeed what Demon had given to Katse, then Katse would never be able to find them in their civilian lives.

But the goons here, and Demon himself, they'd been singling out Jun. Demon still could have seen her face at the airfield, even if he hadn't been able to get a photo of her for Katse…

"It will self destruct in one minute," Demon said, leaning his hands on the console, "You'd better leave now."

Only sixty seconds… they could do it but they'd have to leave fast.

But Ken, as he stood there staring at Dr. Demon, realized that leaving him behind to go down with his ship meant that he, Ken, would be depriving Jun of any chance to ever knowingly confront the man responsible for making her an orphan.

How would he feel, in her shoes, if he ever found out that the truth had been kept from him "for his own good"? He knew exactly how he'd feel, for it had been done to him.

He was being just like Dr. Nambu, wasn't he?

But memories were flickering through his mind, even as sweat beaded on his forehead.

Jun, when they were trapped in the flooding ice chamber in the arctic, telling him he had no right to fixate on personal revenge, "You're acting like you're the lone hero in some kind of Greek tragedy. How can you call yourself the leader of the Science Ninja Team? You're just a crybaby!"

Joe, staring in horror at the flames inside that deep sea lab in the Mariana Trench, and crying out "Why did you have to make me remember this, Ken? Why couldn't you have just let it alone? You were the one who said I'd be happier not knowing the truth!"

He realized he was almost trembling –he was so confused! And so damned _tired. _

Dr. Demon would never submit and come quietly as a prisoner; he would have to knock him out first, and that would take time.

Precious seconds were ticking away… He heard himself saying "But Dr. Demon."

"Let's blow this joint!" yelled Joe, from up above.

They were only waiting for him. If he didn't move now, none of them would escape this mecha alive!

_Protect Jun…_

That was what Dr. Nambu had ordered him to do.

"Farewell," said Dr. Demon, sitting down in his chair, "Give my best to Nambu."

"Hurry up, Ken!" yelled Joe. Jinpei's buggy, with Jun inside, was already heading for the God Phoenix.

What could he do now, except leap up to the balcony and follow them?

He left Dr. Demon behind.

They only just made it away from the mecha in time before it self-destructed and obliterated all the remaining smog fibers in the sky around it.

Dr. Demon was gone forever.

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	6. Chapter 6

Back at the Crescent Coral Base, Ken was finally able to get some sleep –his minded was troubled but he was utterly exhausted.

But at the first opportunity upon waking, he was in Dr. Nambu's office, sitting across from him. The Doctor had heard all the facts of the mission when he debriefed the whole Team, post mission, but there were things that they could only discuss privately.

"If there wasn't time to get Demon back to the God Phoenix by force without putting all your lives at risk, then you made the right call," the Doctor told him.

But Ken knew that there would have been enough time, if he'd acted quickly enough, to bring Dr. Demon back alive –if he'd _wanted_ to act quickly enough…

But as much as he wanted to look away, he kept his eyes on Doctor Nambu's.

"I have to tell you, Ken," Dr. Nambu said, "I often did think about telling you that Red Impulse was your father, as early as that mission when Galactor stole the Blue Hawk."

That had been almost a year before his father had died… He could have had a year with his father.

"I could have done it," the Doctor continued, "Kentaro thought it would put you in danger but I was inclined to think you could handle it. But something always stopped me…"

He was silent for a moment.

"The shame of having to admit I'd lied to you, deceived you? Maybe that was it. I always found myself saying "Not now. Later. I'll tell him, someday…"

"Listen, Doctor," said Ken, "This all started when you asked for my advice. Well, I made my decision, on that mecha when I left Dr. Demon behind to die. When Jun asks you if you've been able to find out anything about her parents, tell her this: her father was a scientist at the same university where you worked and you'd known him only slightly. He died in a lab accident that was no one's fault. Her mother died two years later –from an illness"

Dr. Nambu was staring at him, as if not quite believing what he was hearing, but Ken continued.

"Tell her that her mother was beautiful. Tell her that she looks just like her mother…"

He closed his eyes.

"All right, Ken," Dr. Nambu said quietly, "I accept your advice in this matter."

"Unlike me, Jun wasn't cheated out of chance to knowingly be with her father –he'd died before she was born, her mother only a couple years later. I know what it's like to want your parents, to miss your parents, but I also know what it's like to hate someone for killing them. _I hate Berg Katse._ So does Joe. We use that hate –it drives us- but… I'm just not sure I'd want to wish it on Jun. There's nothing we can give back to her by giving her the whole truth. Not now. Demon's dead."

"I'm sorry, Ken. I'm sorry you weren't told that Red Impulse was your father until it was too late. If I could do it all over…"

"It's okay, Doctor," he said, gazing across the desk and meeting his eyes, "I think I can understand, now."

0000000000

Ken thought he'd never hear the name "Dr. Demon" again, but a few weeks later, the Doctor contacted him and asked to come out and meet him at the villa.

"This is rather strange," Dr. Nambu told him, as they sat on the terrace, "But it seems that I am listed as Dr. Demon's 'next of kin.'"

"Really?"

"Yes, he probably put down my name on some form, years ago, when we were both fresh out of grad school and working at the University."

"So what does that mean?"

"Not very much. It seems that he rented some rooms, though, in a house on the outskirts of New Jork. Would you be willing to go there, on my behalf, and see what remaining possessions he might have kept there?"

"Sure," said Ken, frowning, "But what on earth would you want with them?"

"I don't want them. I am hoping," replied the Doctor, "That among his things there might be a photo of Jun's mother. When I told her the basic facts about her parents that you'd advised me to tell her, she did say that she was sorry she didn't have any photographs."

Oh, of course…

"I'll search every inch of his place, Doctor –if he's got anything, I'll find it!"

0000000000

Dr. Nambu had called the elderly landlady and told her that Ken would be coming, so she immediately understood who he was and took him up to the rooms –bedroom, kitchen and bathroom- that Dr. Demon had rented from her.

"Though he hadn't been here much at all in the last several months," she remarked, "Told me that his new job involved a lot of travelling."

The house was old, and more than a little shabby. Demon's rooms were on the third floor, their walls sloping in halfway from the floor to follow the house's roofline. Thankfully, there weren't a lot of possessions in them. Clearly money had not been something that Dr. Demon had possessed much of.

Some old dishes, unremarkable clothes, a radio, some books…

Nothing interesting, and no photographs of Jun's mother. He really wanted to find one –both to make Jun happy and to see for himself if she looked as much like her mother as Dr. Nambu had said.

Far in the back of closet, on the floor, he found a wooden box. He had struck gold!

A photo of Taeko Hogan, large, clear and in color. The date on the back of it put it about six months before Jun's father had died.

He carried the box over to the bedroom window for better light, and sat on the bed, studying it…

She_ had_ been beautiful –the Doctor hadn't exaggerated that. And Jun did look so very much like her. Anyone who'd seen them both would know immediately they were mother and daughter. Jun's green hair, that was really the only significant difference between her and her mother, but as he continued to gaze at the photo, he knew that Jun was more beautiful. Granted, he was more than a little biased, but there was a touch of sharpness or hardness about Taeko Hogan's eyes and mouth that Jun didn't have. But then, she was younger than her mother would have been in this photo…

Was there anything else in the box? He continued to rummage. Some school diplomas and academic awards… boring.

But at the very bottom, was a letter. No envelope, looked like a woman's handwriting, addressed "Dearest Alex"…

Ugh, some kind of love letter to Dr. Demon? But Ken kept reading…

_Dearest Alex,_

_You're breaking my heart, you know that, don't you? If this letter finds you, please come back to me. I know that if only we could talk, face to face, I could make you understand. How could you leave me? Everything that I did –everything- was so that we could _truly_ be together at last. I did it all for us, and I'm not sorry! _

What the heck was this all about, anyway? He kept reading, though the handwriting was deteriorating in legibility…

_How could you call me a "murderer"? I did it for love, my love for you! Marriage to Peter was a cage, draining the life out me a little more each day; only you, Alex, and our times together sustained me. The ISO job –it was yours! It should have gone to you! I hope that Nambu rots in hell._

Sitting on the bed, not moving, Ken realized he could feel his pulse pounding in his head. The letter continued over to the other side of the paper, and the signature at the bottom confirmed the worst.

Taeko…

He couldn't move, he could hardly breathe. All those years, Dr. Nambu had been so utterly wrong. Dr. Demon had never killed Dr. Hogan –he'd been having an affair with his wife, but it was she who had killed him…

In this new light, it all made a dreadful, twisted kind of sense.

Taeko had been the one to change the label on the sample. She'd wanted to get rid of her husband and make sure that Dr. Demon got the job with the ISO. She must have told Demon what she had done, some days later –maybe that day that Dr. Nambu had told him about, when Demon had charged into his office, insisting he hadn't killed Dr. Hogan but ranting that he had "lost everything"?

He'd skipped town, never to be heard from again. She'd tried to track him down, and one letter, at least, had gotten through.

He was shaking… Jun's mother had been a murderer, not Dr. Demon. She'd killed Jun's father!

Dear God, he was so very, very glad that he'd decided never to tell Jun the truth about Dr. Demon… And he would never, _never _tell her about this letter!

He wasn't going to tell Dr. Nambu about it either!

He could hear the landlady, puttering about in the next room. He set the letter back in the box and tried to compose his face. A moment later she came into the bedroom, holding a cardboard box, which she promptly placed on the bed beside Ken.

"These are his things that were in the bathroom," she said, "I've got another tenant using that bathroom now, so I put all Dr. Demon's things in this box."

Ken began poking through it, still feeling numb, but trying not to let the landlady see what a turmoil his thoughts were in.

Toothpaste, nail trimmers, floss… and two boxes of hair dye –black hair dye.

"Guess he was trying to hide some grey?" joked Ken, still trying to hide his agitation.

_Jun's mother had killed her father…_

The landlady giggled.

"That's what I think, though he wouldn't admit it –you men do hate to confess to your little vanities. He always had that stuff here –I'd see it every time I was in there cleaning. Eventually he told me that he'd dyed his hair black since he was a teenager because his real hair color was _green!"_

She laughed again.

"Of course, I didn't believe that! Who has green hair, after all?"

She walked out the room then, adding over her shoulder, "Take all the time you want here –I'll be downstairs if you need anything."

Ken's head was spinning; he thought he was going to be sick…

His hands were shaking but he picked the letter up again and read the final lines, though they were difficult to decipher –a manic scrawl.

_Please come back to me, Alex. We need you._

But he had never gone back to her and the child she'd been carrying.

Ken's head was pounding… On Dr. Demon's mecha, he had almost seen Jun when he'd shot her bracelet off, but he and Joe and blocked her from his sight.

Green hair… A face like her mother's.

If he'd seen Jun, he would have known who she was.

He would have recognized his daughter.

Ken dropped his face into his hands.

He could have taken Dr. Demon off the mecha –that was what Dr. Nambu had wanted him to do- but he'd instead decided to let him stay there and die.

He had let Jun's father die. In essence, he had killed Jun's father.

He sat there on that bed for a very long time. Eventually, he stopped shaking and his head stopped pounding. He forced himself to take long, deep breaths…

The sun through the window was dimming, shadows in the room lengthening.

He stood up; he had to get out of here. He would tell the landlady that everything could just be thrown out or donated to any charity that wanted it.

But he would keep the photograph of Taeko Hogan and he would give it to Dr. Nambu to pass on to Jun. He could tell her he'd obtained it… somewhere.

The terrible secrets he had learned here…

He didn't know _what_ he would do with them. Or not yet. He didn't have to decide today…

0000000000

Epilogue:

"Why are you laughing that way?" asked Jun, now turning her head to look back at him, her large green eyes looking sad and perplexed.

"We've worked together for so long," he explained, "But we know so little about each other's private lives."

And that was the truth, in a way. He was hiding so much from her –hiding that he loved her, and hiding what he knew about her parents.

He'd turned away from her again, resting his mouth against his clenched hands.

He should tell her, here at the end. He –of _all_ people- should tell her everything. She deserved to know…

"That's really true," replied Jun, softly and sadly, "About me and you."

He should tell her, but _how?_

Jun, I love you. Jun, I killed your father.

_What_ could he say?

The Crescent Coral Base could fall into the trench at any minute. Another barrage of Galactor torpedoes, for all he knew, could be speeding towards it right now…

There might only be mere minutes left for both of them. Anything he was going to tell her, would have to be told now. This was the end -for the Crescent Coral Base, for Dr. Nambu and the Science Ninja Team, maybe even for the ISO…

He closed his eyes again. It didn't have to be difficult; it could be so very, very simple. He would turn and enfold Jun in his arms, embrace her the way he had longed to do for years, and tell her that he loved her. They could die in each other's arms…

The rest… Some truths, he had to accept, did not "set you free" –some were only burdens. As much as he wanted to tell her all about Dr. Demon, that was a selfish quest for absolution of his own guilt. The truth would only bring her pain. He would keep the guilt; it was his alone to bear.

He was ready. He could hear the words in his mind, shape them on his lips…

Jun, I love you.

He began to turn around…

And as he did, the entire Base suddenly shifted beneath them. He and Jun went pitching across the door they'd been sitting on as the tortured groans of twisting metal echoed around them.

Had more torpedoes hit? What was happening?

They struggled to their feet. Ken could tell they were upright again –they were standing on the floor instead of a wall. All was quiet, but they were sinking…

The Base had fallen deeper into the trench; the water pressure would soon be more than it could resist.

But Joe's voice came over his bracelet. "Ken, we got the God Phoenix in! We'll head over your way now."

Maybe it wasn't the end after all…

Jun's beautiful face was still troubled but now hope glowed in her eyes. She smiled at him…

"Good, Joe," he replied, his thoughts racing anew, "Then bring something that'll burn through the automatic door, all right?"

They would rescue Dr. Nambu; they would all survive to fight another day.

The war wasn't over. This wasn't the end after all.

He and Jun had to wait for Joe now. They stood side by side, but saying nothing.

And just minutes earlier, he'd been about to tell her…

But now he was Gatchaman again, and the war wasn't over.

They could still win the war –they _would_ win the war!

That was when he would tell Jun that he loved her.

Not now. Later. Someday…

And the truth about her parents?

He would never tell her or anyone else. _Ever._

He thought about Dr. Nambu… unconscious in the room beside them. They'd rescue him. He would be okay –he_ had_ to be!

He remembered Dr. Nambu telling him he was sorry he hadn't told Ken the truth about who Red Impulse had really been.

It's okay, he had told the Doctor, I think I can understand now.

_He truly understood now. Oh, yes._

He looked over at Jun. So beautiful, so brave, sustenance for his soul.

There was no one else like her in the world.

Someday…

0000000000

* * *

><p>The anonymous request I received, for which this fic was written, was "According to James, the Gatchaguru, there are early notes from Tatsunoko hinting that they had a plan for Jun's origin story (although it was never explored in the series). Evidently, her father was a scientist (specializing in explosives?) who died in a lab accident. I would like to see this idea more developed. What happened to her mother? How did she end up in the orphanage? Did her father work for the ISO? Did Dr. Nambu know her family?"<p> 


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